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Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Al Anbar Governorate, was under U.S. military occupation during the Iraq War. It was a focal point of Iraqi insurgency, which erupted into open armed conflict in 2004 and in 2006, part of the Iraq War in Anbar Province. Operation Murfreesboro was a U.S. offensive in February 2007 intended to cut off the Ma'Laab district of eastern Ramadi from the rest of the town in order to drive out Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
To the north and west, Ramadi is bounded by the Euphrates River, while to the east and south it gradually disappears into suburbs. Ramadi is also the location of the Ramadi Barrage which diverts water from the Euphrates River into Lake Habbaniyah.
U.S. units were largely restricted to a handful of small bases. The headquarters base, in the northern corner of Ramadi, is on the grounds of one of two Saddam-era palaces in the city; known first as Tactical Assembly Area Rifles and later as Camp Blue Diamond, this base was turned over to the Iraqi Army in the winter of 2007. At the other end of the stretch of Highway 10 that runs through Ramadi is another Saddam-era palace used as a Combat Outpost by a unit from the Florida National Guard. Several smaller buildings along Highway 10 between the two larger bases are routinely occupied by U.S. and Iraqi units, and just outside the city there are a number of other, less dangerous and better equipped camps, where an Army brigade headquarters and its support units were based.